New music video
The world premiere recording of Anna Clyne’s *Pocket Book VIII* is now getting its own Vocal Fabric video
3 November 2025
Anna Clyne Pocket Book VIII
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? (Sonnet 8, William Shakespeare)
Flemish Radio Choir conducted by Béni Csillag
singers: Kelly Poukens, Sarah Van Mol, Evi Roelants, Estelle Lefort, Michiel Haspeslagh, Conor Biggs, François Heraud & Andrés Soler Castaño
video: Simon Cools Fierlafijn / featuring: Jasper Coremans & Mano / Super 8: Loïc Meulenberg
A matter of the heart
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 8, music becomes a mirror – harmony reveals what is missing. A young man hears beauty, but feels sorrow: every note reminds him of what he lacks – connection, closeness, the warmth of living together.
A voice on its own is vulnerable.
Together, they become a whole.
That same longing resonates in Anna Clyne’s *Pocket Book VIII*: voices that lose one another, search for one another, and find one another again. A gentle ache that slowly dissolves into harmony.
In this new Vocal Fabric video, director Simon Cools Fierlafijn captures that fragile moment between distance and closeness, where sound itself becomes a human presence.
& #x1f4fa; Watch the video on YouTube
& #x1f3a7; Listen to the recording on your favourite streaming service
“Pocket Book VIII is a setting of Shakespeare’s eighth sonnet, ‘Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?’ This opening line is sung as a prelude to the rest of the sonnet, which is whispered to capture the intimacy that characterises Shakespeare’s sonnets. A slowly unfolding harmonic progression is sung whilst the text is recited, and the music ends with a single note – alone.
I was drawn to this sonnet as it is filled with musical references – musical harmony serving as an analogy for life, with happiness stemming from family – without which, he warns, one will lead a life of loneliness.”
Immersive: experience it in Dolby Atmos
With the EP *Songs in Surround*, the Flemish Radio Choir released the world premiere recordings of Anna Clyne’s *Pocket Book VIII* and *Pocket Book LXV* on Antarctica Records. Two works for eight amplified voices, inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets – exploring harmony, connection and the desire to make music together.
The recording took place amidst the unique acoustics of AMUZ and was released in immersive Dolby Atmos sound. Thanks to the choir’s circular arrangement and the spatial sound recording, it feels as though you are standing right in the middle of the music.
“Thank you so much for sharing this stunning recording. What a treat to hear this!”
Anna Clyne
Sonnet 8, William Shakespeare
Music to be heard – why do you listen to music with a heavy heart?
Sweet things do not clash with sweet things; joy delights in joy:
Why do you love that which you do not receive gladly,
Or else do you receive your annoyance with pleasure?
If the true harmony of well-tuned sounds,
Joined in perfect harmony, offends thy ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Observe how one string, a sweet companion to another,
Resonates with each other in perfect harmony;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all as one, sing a single pleasing note:
Whose speechless song, though many, seems as one,
Sings this to thee: Thou shalt prove not to be alone.